Knowle fundraiser to take money to poorest in India

Pictured: Rod Chapman found fame on a Tenali billboard as the face of a barber's shop; Rod and Beverley find an easy way to get around

COMEDY, CURRY AND MUSIC

The Voice is supporting an evening of music and comedy to help raise funds for the Dalit Women’s Mission in Tenali- you can read about the good cause that's being supported below.

Called the Comedy, Curry and Music Shebang, it’s on Saturday March 17 at Redcatch community centre, Knowle.

There’s a first-rate line-up of comedians – Matthew Baylis, Matt Bragg, Bently Browning, Dan May and Ian MacDonald – with music from Hurry up Harry. (You can check Harry out at soundcloud.com/hurry-up-harry).

All the profits will go to the charity in India – not a penny will be spent on airfares. The costs of the evening have been covered by generous South Bristol sponsors advertising on this page in the printed edition.

The evening is organised by Ruth Drury, the Voice’s sales manager and daughter of Beverley Chapman. Tickets are just £10 – which includes curry and handmade Indian treats from Sebastien Brochot services and Desi – from Ruth on 07590527664. Bring your own alcohol.

MEMBERS of a South Bristol church are flying to India next month in the latest of their visits to help people in one of the country’s poorest regions.

Brendan Bassett, minister of Victoria Park Baptist church, will lead the party travelling to the city of Tenali in Andhra Pradesh.

But it’s fair to say the trip will probably mean most to church member Beverley Chapman, who has been on aid trips to Tenali several times but will be making the journey for the first time without her husband Rod, who died suddenly in January last year.

The trio, including one other churchgoer, will be visiting the many Christian churches around the city and also giving money and practical help to Christians and non-Christians alike.

Beverley explained that the Bristol party are paying their own fares and every penny they raise will be spent on local projects such as digging wells and providing help to people such as HIV sufferers and widows, who are sometime shunned in rural areas.

Under the guide of local priest Jean Paul Pinapati, they will visit schools, villages and an orphanage. She’s also looking forward to seeing what has been achieved with money she sent to Tenali in memory of Rod – she’s hoping it will have funded a well for a school with no access to water.

“It’s a very humbling experience to go there,” said Bev, who travelled to India on similar trips with Rod in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012.

“The people are so amazing: you realise how much you have got and what they haven’t got.”

Bev and Rod did not see their trips as a one-way charity exercise – they believed that they were given just as much in return by the Indian people.

In rural areas old habits die hard, and people with leprosy or HIV can be shunned as unlucky. That is why it is so important that people go to visit them, said Beverley. “Someone said to me, why don’t you just send the money over there?” she said.

“But for them to know that someone has taken the time to go there and be with them means as much as getting the cash.”